Dr. Christine Hagar, an assistant professor at the San José State University (SJSU) School of Library and Information Science, addressed the Health Information For All 2015 (HIFA 2015) mHealth goal during a poster showing at the 2014 BOBCATSSS conference in Barcelona. She explained the need for mobile access to healthcare information at the point of need in low-income countries where healthcare workers may not be available.

“Thousands of lives could be saved every day if all mobile phones had basic healthcare knowledge, including and especially first aid, maternal, and child health information” (HIFA2015).

The preliminary research findings revealed that of the 1,700 mHealth programs/projects scanned, “there are very few projects that empower people in low-income countries with the information they need, when they need it.”

Hagar teaches an informatics course for graduate students in the SJSU information school’s exclusively online and ALA-accredited Master of Library and Information Science program. She is also the coordinator for the school’s Center for Information Research and Innovation (CIRI), a virtual research center aimed at generating exemplary new practices and innovative products to benefit a global audience.